Salvogesis

  My parents took Susan, our kids and I on an Alaska cruise to celebrate their 60 th anniversary. It was great. We were able to see wonderful scenery in Glacier National Park and elsewhere. We were able to see whales – so many whales – and other wildlife. It was good celebrating with family. It was fun to do the activities on ship and explore Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan. The girls and I really enjoyed the trivia – especially music trivia - nights. We even won two of the contests and received plastic tulips as a prize! Heather and I were able to be part of a show in Skagway where they invited us up on stage. We also met some very interesting people – One lunch I sat with a lady from Japan who studied at Regent College in Vancouver and is currently working on her PHD on Malachi – she spent 10 years translating Bibles in Uzbekistan. It was certainly providential to have her sitting next to me at lunch one day. She told me how one of the Bible translators working with her, an Uzbek...

Every Friday morning at 7am we walk through and around Toronto's Regent Park where we live and work, praying for the neighbourhood, the people who live our the neighbourhood, the people who have lived in our neighbourhood and the people who will live in this neighbourhood. Regent Park was North America's oldest housing project. Many people from all over the world have lived in or around this area when they first arrived in Canada. Many people lived here as they were unable to work or find work. Many, many children have lived in this area for a long time. The nieghbourhood is changing. The low-income housing is being replaced by market-value housing and  - that is an answer to prayer - we will see what happens in the long term. In the short term there is violence. This is sadly still a violent community. Many times the community members are on the receiving end of violence perpetrated by people coming here from other parts of the city. Not too many weeks go by without us hea...